Chapter 15: Thaw

Snow was falling all around me, melting away against my face. The alleyways were dimly lit except for one overly bright street post. I could barely see anything past it but the darkened sky. I could tell it was night time but since it was snowing, the sky had a dark scarlet hue to it. My nostrils picked up on the scent of fireplaces burning in the distance, someplace that I couldn't see. The air was cold and crisp and it wasn't long before I found myself rubbing my hands together for warmth. Trying to remember where I was, I realized that I wasn't wearing a jacket. Looking around, I gathered that I was in between a series of buildings, almost like a complex or storage facility.

There wasn't a single sound to be heard. As I breathed in and out, I could see my breath wisp away into the air before me. I then began to hear something very faint. Almost like crunching. No, footsteps. Somebody was approaching me from behind walking through the snow. When I turned around, I was face to face with King. How did he find me? I found myself at a loss for words as he stood before me, arms crossed in an intimidating manner.

"How could you just leave me behind, Peter?"

I realized now that I hadn't thought this part through. I never exactly planned an explanation. As I stood there looking up at him, my legs began to get even colder than they were before. The sensation began to travel up slowly through my body before I felt a tingling in my arm. Following the odd feeling, I looked down and pulled my sleeve up. What I saw shocked me. My arm was beginning to develop cracks, almost like glass, traveling further up my body as I watched. Immediately, my breathing intensified and I looked up at King. He stood like a statue, not even acknowledging what was happening to me.

My chest began to crack followed by my neck. Carefully bringing my fingers up to my face, I felt it begin to chip and crackle as well. Panicking, I froze in fear and struggled to find words to say. King reached forward to my chest slowly, placing his open palm over my heart. Without saying anything, he pushed me back. As I fell backwards to the floor, I noticed I was falling at an incredibly slow speed. It was then that I felt my body begin to shatter into pieces as I hit the ground. My scream seemed to echo through the sky as I physically fell apart. Everything went black. I could still smell the cold air and hear the light sound of snowfall. After what seemed like an eternity, I heard something else.

"It's ok, Peter." Right away, I knew that the voice was familiar. Unable to explain what was happening, I watched as my body began to form itself back together and rise slowly from the ground. It was almost as if time was rewinding itself, pulling me back off the floor and bringing me back to existence. My feet touched the snow kissed floor once again and when I looked at my hands, everything appeared to be back to normal. I looked up and saw who had been speaking to me a second ago.

It was Julia. As she reached for my hands, I noticed that her genuine smile put my anxiety at ease. She looked me deep in my eyes and held my hands tightly inside hers.

"Nobody can break you, Peter. No one can." She turned and headed for a doorway that led into the nearest building. Without thinking, I followed her. Reaching the door, she looked back and smiled at me before opening it. A bright white light escaped from the door, blinding me temporarily. Moments passed and I began to hear the sound of someone humming. Cautiously opening my eyes, I saw darkness. When I made a motion to get up, I realized that I was lying in bed. Still hearing the sound of humming, I slowly looked over to my left and saw Scott standing against the glass wall of his bedroom. Shaking the odd dream aside, I watched as he turned to look at me with a smile.

"Oh good, you're awake! Come here, you need to see this."

Kicking the sheets off, I joined Scott and followed his eyesight. Just over the mountain range, a thin sliver of orange light began to become visible. He nudged his arm against me playfully and flashed another warm look of satisfaction. I'd been living here for two full years and not once had I ever seen the sunrise over the mountain range this early. In stunned silence, I stood next to Scott watching the sun rays slowly pour down the rocky mountain; gold liquid spilling across the earth like honey.

"Isn't it beautiful?" he asked me. I turned to him and smiled, before looking back to nature waking up.

"It is. You must love seeing this every morning."

"It seems better today, to be able to see it with someone else." Scott looked over with a grin and I immediately felt my face getting red. It was so strange. This man was basically a complete stranger to me, but I felt so comfortable around him. And it was becoming obvious that the feeling was mutual. While watching the clouds change color along with the sky, my thoughts traveled back to last night. I remembered him kissing me and things getting a little bit weird. But then I remembered that he pushed the whole incident aside so generously. Still, I couldn't help but feel a bit awkward having everything come back to me sober. I decided to say something about it.

"Scott, I'm sorry about last night. I didn't mean to make things awkward."

"You have nothing to apologize for. If anything I feel bad about leading you into things like that."

"It's totally not your fault. I just didn't know I was going to react that way. Maybe I was too high?" I tried to smooth my anxiety with a chuckle, wiping the rest of the sleep out of my eyes. Scott laughed to himself and walked over to a small kitchen area in the room. Grabbing a mug, he poured coffee and walked back over, offering it to me.

"Figured you could use some of this after last night. Do you take sugar or anything?" Shaking my head, I reached forward and accepted it. I didn't want to admit it, but I wasn't a huge coffee drinker. I loved the smell but never really cared for the taste of it. Not wanting to look further 'uncool' in front of my host, I lifted the mug to my lips and took in a sip of the black fluid. Just as I remembered it. Bitter, harsh, and always burning my tongue even after blowing on it. Try as I might to hide my reaction, I must've made a certain face or something because when I looked over at Scott, he was laughing at me.

"Not much of a coffee drinker are you?" he said. I shook my head slowly, but continued to drink the coffee anyways.

"No, but I think it might help me wake up so thank you. I was trying so hard to be cool about it."

"You don't have to act cool for me. Just be yourself."

"Thanks, Scott. You seem like a really nice guy. And I really appreciate you sticking up for me in the club last night. I would've been screwed, literally, if you hadn't been there." Both of us chortled at the ridiculous pun and continued to watch the sunrise on the other side of the glass.

"It was nothing. Like I said, I used to be a bartender and bouncer so I've unfortunately seen more than my fair share of assholes like those guys. I'm just glad I was able to notice it before it was too late. Anyways, I'm gonna go hop in the shower. You can take one here if you'd like, and then I'll take you back home." Reaching for my shirt, I remembered I couldn't do that.

"I just realized I left my car at the club. Could you drop me off there?"

"Of course! Not a problem. Well make yourself at home, I'll be out in a bit."

"Okay, and thanks again Scott." He flashed me another handsome smile and disappeared into the bathroom, closing the door behind him. My heart felt like it was racing and I could definitely feel butterflies in my stomach. I was really enjoying being in this man's company. Continuing to drink my coffee, I looked back out over the brightening mountainside. My thoughts slowly began to travel back to the odd dream I had. Ridiculous as it was, I caught myself checking my skin for marks, making sure there were no cracks. With my luck, I was still dreaming.

However, everything appeared to be normal. Whatever that word meant these days. King haunted me often. But I found that the detail I was focusing on the most was Julia. I'm not sure why, maybe it was because I literally forced myself to forget everything and everyone around me had ever existed, but I found myself genuinely missing her. Despite our shoddy history together, she remained one of the few true friends I had in my life back then. To be honest, I had wanted to reach out to her awhile back, but I knew she would feel pressured to tell King. That's IF he was looking for me anymore. Who really knows? Things change.

Hearing the shower running in the background, I paced back and forth along the glass wall, carefully taking in every sight of nature that I could. If Julia were here, she would love to see this. Every time I closed my eyes, I kept seeing her smile from the dream repeat itself over and over. Even though I'd never admit it out loud, I had watched the last two King of Iron Fist Tournaments. Mostly because I wanted to see how King had been holding up. However, I also kept a close eye on Julia during her matches. She did very well and I could tell her techniques had improved greatly. She managed to get farther into the tournament than she did back when we used to enter together. I couldn't help but notice how she would scan the crowd each time she stepped into the arena. Had she been hoping I would appear? I must've fell into another daze of thought because before I knew it, Scott came up behind me and placed his hand on my shoulder.

"Ready whenever you are."

The shower definitely helped to clear my mind. I found myself in slightly better spirits than I was before. After engaging in some more small talk, we headed downstairs and to the front door. He tossed on a white leather jacket over his black t-shirt and led me outside back to his car. I was surprised when he once again held the passenger door open for me. As soon as we were all buckled in, I felt the urge to take a playful jab at him.

"Maybe we can skip the Fast and Furious routine this time?" He was barely able to contain his reaction, holding a hand to his mouth and laughing quietly with his eyes closed.

"Yeah sorry about that. I get like that at night sometimes. Former rock star and all, you know."

"That's the worst time to show off, ha ha! You have to be careful or you could get hurt."

"Concerned for my safety are you, Peter?" I could feel his smile burning into the side of my face. As much as I tried to play it cool, I had to look away and recompose myself.

The drive was relaxing as we filled any silence, chatting and asking each other questions about the other. I was biting my tongue bad because I was so tempted to ask more about his underground fighting matches. It's weird but I found that in my time away from Iron Fist, I still craved the thrill of combat. I just didn't want him to know who I was. At least not yet. Avoiding the subject, I decided to ask about this girl he used to be involved with.

"So that girl with the red hair in your pictures, was that the lead singer of your group?" His facial expression soured slightly and I wondered if I perhaps shouldn't have brought her up.

"Yeah, that was her. Her name's Magnolia Forde."

"Well for what it's worth, she's really pretty. Where is she from?"

"Barbados. Had the thick accent and everything. She's a tough chick, I'll give her that." Seeing that the positive vibes we'd been experiencing were beginning to falter, I decided to cut her out of the conversation. She must've been someone who left scars on him, maybe just like how King had left the same scars on me.

"Sorry, we don't have to talk about her. I just remembered seeing her picture above your fireplace and was curious if that was her."

"It's fine, don't worry. She's just…yeah. So anyways, ha ha, what do you have planned for your day?" The question took me by surprise a bit. Especially when I realized I didn't really have an answer. Finding something to say, I casually leaned back in the chair and looked out the window at the passing woods.

"I should probably catch up on some of the errands I've been putting off. Bills and things like that. What about you?"

"Today is a free day for me, but I have another match tomorrow night. Gotta rest up to keep my face pretty before it gets punched." There it was again. Seeing as how he brought up the subject, I decided I wanted to know more about it.

"So, what's that like?"

"It's actually fairly liberating. Kinda hard to describe, really. But if I were to sum it up, it's amazing. You get to release your rage, challenge yourself, and push yourself to limits you didn't even know you had. There's something seriously satisfying about winning a match and hearing the crowd cheer your name."

I knew the feeling all too well. I completely understood the rush he was describing. Although whenever I had entered previous King of Iron Fist Tournaments, I was fighting for a cause of some kind. There was always a motivation. The cash prize to make things better, helping King to avenge Armor King, or helping Julia find her old stolen data again. There was always something keeping me going. And somewhere along the way, I'd lost track of what I wanted for myself. Snapping out of my thoughts, I turned back to Scott. I wanted to know more.

"So, do you have a particular fighting style or Martial Art?"

"Not necessarily. I'd classify myself as more of a brawler than a Martial Artist. But I've held my own again professional fighters plenty of times. All kinds of people fight down there. Keeps you on your toes. Sorry, this all probably sounds really weird to you. The last thing you'd wanna do is fight, I'm sure."

"Its fine, it all sounds very interesting actually." We filled the air with more small talk before reaching the club where my car was waiting for me. Once Scott parked next to it, I struggled to find the right words to say. Was this the last time I was ever going to see him? Maybe not because he said he'd seen me around town a few times. Don't know how I never noticed him. Unbuckling my seatbelt, I reached for the door handle and turned back to look at him. He patted my shoulder and began to speak.

"Well, Peter it was a pleasure meeting you. It was nice being able to just be people together. You're the first person I've ever taken home and not had sex with ha ha." I immediately found myself hot in the face.

"Is…is that a good thing?" I said, unsure of what to make of it.

"It was probably one of the best nights I've had actually. There was no pressure to follow society's 'protocol' if that makes any sense."

"It does. I felt the same way. Thanks so much again for everything. I guess…I'll see you around?"

"Yeah, maybe, why not? Like I said last night, this is a pretty small town. Take care, Peter. Get home safe." I found myself not wanting to leave things like this. But I had to. I wasn't ready for all this anyways. And we'd just met. It was probably for the best to just be on my way and chalk last night up to a nice spontaneous time. Still…my mind kept yelling at me to say something else. I just wasn't sure what that was. Not wanting to make things awkward, I opened the car door and closed it behind me. As I took my keys out of my pocket, I looked back one more time and waved. Sighing to myself, I unlocked my door and started to open when suddenly, I heard him lower the passenger window behind me. I felt strangely happy and found myself turning back around, perhaps a bit too quick.

"Do you want my number?" I caught myself smiling from ear to ear for a second before regrouping my emotions and trying to play it cool.

"Uh, yeah sure, why not?" I was practically fumbling through my pocket for my phone. He must've noticed because he was looking me up and down chuckling quietly and shaking his head.

"You're cute, you know that Peter?"

"Uh, t-thanks! Umm, here I'll just let you plug it into my phone." I carefully controlled my hand so that he wouldn't see it was shaking. After entering his number, I saw him text my number to his.

"Got yours now too. So hey since we are on the topic, what do you say we hang out again soon?" I held in my excitement and carefully thought about what I wanted to say next.

"How about tomorrow night?"

"Can't. I have a match tomorrow night, remember?"

"I know that, Scott. I meant I'd like to be there. If that's ok with you of course?" He seemed a little confused but smiled and nodded slowly.

"Okay, sounds like a plan. Text me your address." Not wanting to impose on him, I waved my hand dismissively.

"Oh it's okay, I can meet you there!" He gave me a stern look, although not a serious one, followed by that damn smirk of his again.

"Text me your address. I'll pick you up at 9 PM. Besides, you might be my lucky charm tomorrow night." I nodded and waved back to him as he pulled away, but stopping to make sure I got into my car okay. Words could not describe what I was feeling right now. I started up my car and gave him a thumbs up, watching him drive away. For the first time in two years, I felt unstoppable. Nothing was going to ruin this feeling for me right now. Nothing.